A Super Salad

"Too many simple green salads suffer from lack of imagination." - James Beard

Here we are at November 7th and the highs are in the mid-80's.  Looking at the bright side, the garden is flourishing.  For the supper menu tonight, we had some homemade pesto and bowtie pasta as the main course and figured that a FRESH garden salad would be the perfect accompaniment.  If you're not busy, would you come with me and gather the ingredients?

Let's stop off at the cattle panel that doubles as a trellis for the sugar snap peas.  They are healthy and climbing and are almost five feet tall right now.  Blooms are in abundance and there are already numerous pea pods.  We'll pick some of those as they are so sweet and delicious in a salad. 

Here's the lettuce patch.  There are five or six varieties going.  We've been eating a lot of salads lately.  Several years ago I learned something that I feel embarrassed to share, but here goes.  I would harvest lettuce by pulling each up by the roots.  This was dumb.  Super dumb.  Somehow I used my noggin and figured out that if you just snap off the leaves (not by the roots), your plant will continue producing and producing until next spring when it gets warm and bolts.  Then you let it flower and save the seeds.

But for now, we'll pull off the biggest, prettiest leaves from a variety of lettuces so that the salad bowl is multi-colored.  We hear a lot about "Farm to Table" and how fresh that is.  This salad will be picked, washed, tossed and eaten within 30 minutes of harvest.  Let's grab some lettuce and get going inside to put it all together.

The lettuce goes in a salad spinner where we'll wash it up real good and spin it dry.

Not all things in the salad are fresh.  Here are some lacto-fermented cucumbers that we pickled back in the spring.  I like to cube these up and throw in the salad bowl.

Even older than that is some lacto-fermented ginger carrots from February.  So cool, tangy, and tasty!  Let's put several fork-fuls on top.

This stuff here, although its not homemade is like the cherry on top.  This olive salad is the concoction that they put on a muffelleta.  It's delicious on a salad, too.  A spoonful or three on top...

All goes in a big wooden bowl.  We'll top with grated parmesan cheese, green onions, salt & pepper.

We'll add some ranch dressing and top it off with some lacto-fermented HOT banana peppers.

We'll ask a blessing over the salad and pasta and dig in.  Super salad!

Mid-October Garden

In one word: DRY.  Of course, that's no surprise.  October is normally the driest of months.  By today's tally, it's been a month and six days since the last rainfall.  There's really no chance to speak of in the 10 day forecast.  I'm all out of the rain water that I sequester in buckets and barrels beneath the drip line behind the house.  All except for one barrel that the honeybees use to drink from.  So I've been running the sprinkler every day.  This is a sprinkler that Mom & Dad got me and we have really put some mileage on it.  We move it from one location to the other in the garden to get moisture in the soil.  This is a photo from a few weeks ago.  Even despite the lack of rainfall, the plants have grown nicely since then.

Amazingly, even as hot as it's been, the bug pressure hasn't been bad at all on the bok choy.  We've clipped all of this and eaten it since I took the photo.  It grows back quickly.  We usually cook these down like you would with any greens, but Tricia adds some ginger, lime juice and grated parmesan to the top of them.  They are really good.  This isn't something I grew up eating, for sure.  In fact, I would have turned my nose up at it, but now, I like it.

We like to plant a big variety of lettuce in the fall.  Even if we get a freeze, if we cover it, we've been successful in saving most of it.  I want to show you a new variety of lettuce we're trying out from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com).  This is called "Flashy Butter Gem" lettuce.  First time we've tried it and we achieved a phenomenal germination rate on it.  We won't know how it tastes for a week or two, though.

The leaves are a nice green color with what appears to be bloodstains on them.  I guess I'll overlook that trait.  Sure is lovely looking, though, with the morning dew beading up on the leaves before the sun evaporates it.  Just a beautiful lettuce.

But you need more than lettuce for a salad.  How about some cucumbers?  We've got some coming!  These cucumber plants looked atrocious the other day as some worms were feasting on the leaves and actually killed two plants.  That's when I dosed them up with some Neem Oil.  I'm impressed with that product.  It killed the pests and the cucumber plants quickly put on fresh new growth.

Lots of blooms coming, too!  I'm excited about some fall cucumbers for the salad.  I've got a few other garden reports coming in the next few days.  Stay tuned (and get out and enjoy this nice weather - it was 52 degrees here last night!)

Hunters and Gatherers

I have been listening to a podcast about Davy Crockett.  So interesting!  The podcast is one that my uncle shared with me.  It's called "Bear Grease."  I'm hooked.  It's some fellas from Arkansas that are talking all things country - from squirrel dogs to catfishing on trot lines.  But my favorite, so far, a series on Davy Crockett!  It's an in-depth look at his life and the time that he grew up in, back when men were men.  The series, up to the latest posted, talk about his childhood, and his bear hunting exploits and it will get into his political career and the Alamo in upcoming segments.  

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, Greenest state in the land of the free,
Raised in the woods so he knew every tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier

In thinking about Davy Crockett, I remember being a kid and me (or my brother) getting a coonskin cap as a souvenir on family vacation.  I tell you what, when I put that thing on my head, I felt like I was a woodsman.  Who needed grocery stores or clean clothes, or baths, for that matter?  With a coonskin cap on my head, I was King of the wild frontier.  As it turns out, stores are mighty helpful (and I think my wife decrees that baths are mandatory).

I will say this, though.  Last month, our grocery bill was only $150.  The Good Lord has blessed us with a productive garden.  We've been eating lots of fresh stuff from the "Farmacy" out back.  It is warming up and I want to share a refreshing, cool salad we gather and throw together for lunch.  Come with me and we'll do a little hunting and gathering.

The blueberry bushes are yielding berries, and if we can beat the mockingbirds and blue jays to them, we can pick a couple of pints each day.

They are big, plump and sweet!

Now, let's meander by the herb garden and pick a handful of fresh dill.

Let's grab a basket and head out to the garden and pick some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

We'll chop up the cukes and dill, crumble some feta cheese, sprinkle some blueberries, and sea salt and black pepper and then drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil and toss it up.

That's a cool, refreshing, crisp salad, right there.  Right from the back yard.  I'm not so sure Davy Crockett would have enjoyed this, though.  He'd have bear backstrap and taters for lunch instead, I'm sure, but he would still approve of trying to live off the land.

Quick Look at the Fall Garden (The Salad Rows)

Let's take a look at the Fall Garden.  The spring garden is tailing off with only okra and butterbeans producing still.  Well, our many varieties of peppers and eggplant are starting to really produce after a dormant summer slump.  Today, we'll look at the salad rows.  We have one full row with various types of leaf lettuce.  We've enjoyed salads deep into winter by covering these rows during freezes.  Here is the most prolific variety of leaf lettuce - the Black Seeded Simpson.

Growing up, I had never planted lettuce, so it was a new crop to learn.  In fact, when the lettuce got big, I'd pull it up by the roots.  Not smart!  My wife told me, "Why don't you cut the leaves off from the different varieties and they'll re-grow over and over?"  Why didn't I think of that?  This was the start of the "never ending salad bowl" during the fall and winter.

Here's a patch of Red Romaine.  It looks spiffy next to the Black Seeded Simpson (green leaf lettuce) that is it's neighbor to the east on the row.

Here is a mix of lettuce called Rocky Top Blend.  It must originate from Tennessee.  It has a nice mixture of different varieties and different colors.

And finally here is a variety of lettuce called Oak Leaf lettuce.  Yep, you guessed it.  The leaves mimic the appearance of an oak leaf.  The colors are different, the leaves are different, but I think that most lettuce tastes the same.  I'll admit I don't have a refined palate.  There was a salad mix I planted one time that was "spicy," you might say.  It had arugula, radicchio, and endive along with others.  It was just too strong for our tastes.  The varieties I have planted are all sweet and tasty. 

Along with every salad, you'll want to slice up some cucumbers.  This is the first time I've attempted to grow some in the fall.  If the frost holds off, we'll have at least ONE cucumber to cut up.  There's lots of blooms and lots more on the way!

Tricia likes to slice up homegrown tomatoes for the salad.  We've got lots of tomatoes coming.  I've trellised them using the Florida Weave method and they are happy, adding inches of growth each and every day.  Annie, the Nubian Goat, is coveting the tomatoes.  If she could, I promise you, she'd be in there making a mess of the garden.

We have lots of blooms and lots of tomatoes coming!  We'll see if we can get a harvest in before the first freeze hits.  The Old Farmer's Almanac shows November 26th to be the first FROST date for our area.  We can protect these from a frost, but not a hard freeze.  We'll watch and see what happens.

While I was pinching off suckers that grow in the tomato plant's 'elbows' and squeezing to death four or five late season Army worms that were feeding on the tomato plants' foliage, I saw one of our honeybees that was busy (as a bee) pollinating one of the tomato blooms.

That concludes the salad rows.  I'll show you some of the other rows a little later this week.  We still haven't planted a few fall/winter crops like mustard greens, spinach, and turnips.  Those will likely go in once the okra finishes up.

Cool As A Cucumber

The idiom "cool as a cucumber" came from a poem that was written in 1732!  Wow, some things have staying power.  But what does that saying mean?  Well, since cucumbers are largely made up of water, they stay cool to the touch.  We need things cool to the touch.  It's the first day of June.  It's been 80 degrees at 7:30 am in the morning and already getting into the 90's in the afternoon.  It is warming up quickly!

Our garden, fortunately, has been producing nice fruit.  We are picking at least 3 cucumbers everyday.  We planted three varieties: Mademore, Boston Pickling (my favorite), Organic pickling, and Suyo long.

I came back from the cucumber trellis yesterday with all varieties except for Suyo Long.  I planted them 3 weeks later, so we don't have any of those yet.  But I did get a surprise.  What is that thing in the center of the cucumber colander?

I am almost 100% certain it is a Lemon Cucumber!  A seed or two of that variety of seed must have gotten mixed into the seed package!

It is named appropriately.  It looks like a lemon, but it tastes like a cucumber.

On these hot summer days (and it is only June1!), what one needs to cool off is a nice, cool salad.  Lettuce is out of the question.  We finished that up in the garden months ago.  But a nice cucumber salad hits the spot.  We cut up cucumbers, fresh tomatoes, Creole onions we just harvested, fresh picked blackberries, salt and pepper, Balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.  Then we grate a little Parmesan cheese on top.  It's better if you put it in the fridge and let it marinate for a few hours.

Holy Moly!  What a delicious, cooling salad.

We have been eating cucumber salad every single day!

Bumby Beets Salad

On a daily basis we're harvesting beets, roasting them and eating them pickled.  We even tried eating them raw.  We plant a variety called Bull's Blood, because of their red leaves.

They are nice-sized - they feel about the size of a baseball in the palm of your hand.

Growing up, on Sundays after church, we would go to my maternal grandmother's house for lunch.  We called her Bumby.  We'd gather in the formal dining room with the entire family there, say a blessing over the meal and then we'd feast.  One of the things we'd have is something that we call "Bumby Beet Salad.  Here is the recipe below:

Tricia has already prepared the beets according to instruction in the photo and now she's shredding the lettuce.  All the ingredients like red onion and tomatoes (other than the mayo and seasonings) are there with the bowl.

The beets and other ingredients are added and now the salad is tossed to mix it all up.

The final thing is to add the mayo.  I'm usually not a big mayo fan, but it is necessary in this recipe.  Once it's all mixed up, it makes a mighty fine salad.

Bumby Beet Salad.  With a bombastic bumper crop of beets, we'll be eating this a lot in the upcoming weeks.  You ought to give it a try!

Cilantro Salad with Kalamata Olives, Avacado and Limes

Our cilantro plants last year went to seed (coriander seed, technically) and every single doggone one of them germinated.  We have a FIELD of cilantro!  We've made a bunch of salsa and pico de gallo with it and cooked it with scrambled eggs, and we'll continue to do that, but I was looking for something else to do to use up this excess cilantro.

I searched on the internet and found a recipe for Cilantro Salad with Kalamata Olives, Avocadoes, & Limes.  It is a middle-eastern dish and seemed interesting.  We made it up last night.  I'll share the recipe and give you my review.  Here is the credit for the recipe: SAVEUR

Ingredients

4 packed cups cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

2 poblano chiles, stemmed seeded, and thinly sliced (2 cups)

2 cups red onion, quartered and thinly sliced 

1 medium lime, peel and pith removed, flesh quartered and thinly sliced

1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

10 pitted kalamata olives

1 firm ripe avocado, thinly sliced

Here is the peppers, red onion and lime all thinly sliced in a big bowl.

Then we added the cilantro leaves.  I just realized that we didn't coarsely chop the cilantro.  We did sit out in the garden and pick out all of the stems.  Coarsely chopping the leaves would probably enhance this dish.

We sliced the olives and avocado.  The peppers just north of the knife were some Anaheim peppers that Tricia didn't want in her salad, so I reserved them for mine.

Then we whisked the lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper together for the dressing.

We tossed it all together, gently in the big bowl.

We garnished with kalamata olives and avocado slices.

And we served with Roasted Sweet Potato Soup with sweet potatoes that had just finished curing.  Delicious!

Review:  The salad was good.  The cilantro was a little over-powering (and we love cilantro).  I think in the future, we'll substitute half of the cilantro with lettuce to tone it down a bit.  The recipe makes A LOT!  We have a field of cilantro in the garden, so we have a lot more to go through!

Bumby's Beet Salad

We had a bumper crop of beets from the fall garden this past year.  The variety we plant is called "Bull's Blood" because even the leaves of the plant have dark red leaves, similar to the color of bull's blood, I suppose. This past week we harvested our last one.  We have been slicing them and roasting them in the oven on most nights.  So good!  We love beets, and they are supposed to be really good for you.

We have also pickled the beets, made beet kvaas, and borscht, but we were looking for other recipes to use up our bumper crop of beets. Tricia was talking to my Mom on the phone and got a recipe for a beet salad.  This beet salad brought back a lot of memories for us and we thought we'd share.  My maternal grandmother (we affectionately called her Bumby) always made this salad.  She was big on different types of salads: cucumber salad, plates with olives, pickled okra, pickled beets, peppers, etc. Her beet salad was one of my favorites.

We will call them "Bumby Beet Salad".

Peel, cut up, and boil beets with salt and pepper.  Drain them.  Then cover beets with white vinegar and boil again - add more pepper, if needed. 

Then set aside to cool.  This essentially pickles the beets quickly.  Tear up some lettuce in a bowl.

Add thinly sliced red or white onion and add cut up slices or chunks of beets.

Put it all in a bowl.

Mix with 1 or 2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise (blechhh! - I don't like mayo at all, but this salad is still good - I just don't think about the fact that I know it's in there!).

Stir it up and add additional seasoning, if needed.

The tangy pickled beets stand in contrast with the crunchy flavorful onions and crisp lettuce and provide a really nice side salad for any meal.  We have made several of these and have really enjoyed them.  Reminds me of Sunday meals after church at Bumby's house and puts a nostalgic smile on my face!